1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to fabric handling machinery and particularly to machinery which unrolls large rolls of fabric at a high rate of speed.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
When manufacturing fabric, typically a circular needle cylinder is utilized to create a roll of tubular fabric which is collected around a central spindle. The tubular fabric roll created typically has been on the order of about 50 pounds of material. The light weight of these relatively small tubular fabric rolls has not created handling problems when further processing of the fabric rolls is required. However, new circular knitting machinery can now create tubular fabric rolls which are much larger than the previously small 50 pound rolls. These new machines can create tubular fabric rolls that can weigh as much as 600 to 800 pounds. Handling of these larger rolls of fabric becomes a much more difficult task. Specifically, the rolls, after knitting, must be unraveled as the tubular fabric is fed into the next processing step, generally bleaching and dyeing.
Machines which are currently used for unrolling the smaller 50 pound rolls of fabric are comprised of a simple cradle having free spinning rollers contained therein for easy rotation of a small fabric roll placed within said cradle. This method of unrolling material into the bleach and dye process is not appropriate for larger rolls, nor will it allow the fabric to be spun off of the storage roll at a high rate of speed required in order to reduce the processing time of the material.